The Boundary Commission for England yesterday confirmed it was backing the plans drawn up by Labour’s Nick Brown rather than its original proposals as part of a Government-ordered inquiry to cut the number of North East MPs from 29 to 26.

The Tories want to slash the number of MPs from 650 to 600 and make constituency sizes more uniform for the 2015 general election, with some seeing it was key to an outright victory.

But Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats have vowed to block any change this side of the election.

Under Mr Brown’s plans, the existing Newcastle Central and Newcastle East seats would remain in the same constituencies with Wallsend added to the latter.

A new Newcastle North and Cramlington seat would be created, while Whitely Bay would remain within the Tynemouth seat. “This is a far more tidy solution using natural boundaries and drawing on existing arrangements,” said Mr Brown.

But he stressed his opposition to any changes, which Labour has claimed is “gerrymandering”, and warned they could yet happen.

Dave Anderson, Labour MP for Blaydon, claimed the Boundary Commission had ignored local views and breached its own guidelines.